KURDISH TOURIST INDUSTRY SLOWLY RECOVERING AFTER TWO YEARS OF DECLINE

[Wiljor]

Iraq, March 22, 2017 

Over 2,000 holidaymakers a day are crossing the borders from Iran to celebrate Newroz in the Kurdistan Region, according to border-control authorities who say more vacationers have entered the country than the previous two years when the ISIS war was at its peak. 

“Some 40,000 people have entered the Kurdistan Region from Iran since March this year and we predict that the trend will continue until the end of the month,” said Zirar Hussein, in charge of the passport and residence office at the Haji Omran border gate. 

According to the Kurdistan Tourism Board, some 40 buses have also been transporting vacationers into the country from Iran helping to ease the pressure on the border control offices. 

In 2015, as the Region went through severe economic crises and a raging war with ISIS, just 30,000 tourists chose to come to Kurdish destinations in Iraq, the board’s data shows. 

Authorities have planned to invest millions in modern infrastructure and build hundreds of new tourist attractions across the Region, which they hope will bring back their missing vacationers.

“We did not allocate any money for tourism in the past two years because of the ISIS war and the economic crisis, but this year we managed to convince tourist companies to invest and attract vacationers,” said Erbil’s Deputy Governor Tahir Abdulla. 

Kurdish authorities have planned to spend an estimated $100 million in the coming years to revive and develop an industry which many believe will be profitable in the long-run. 

According to the Kurdish union of hotels and restaurants there are nearly 4,000 guesthouses, eateries, and vacation sites in the Kurdistan Region which primarily earn their revenues through holidaymakers who had come in their thousands in the past. Many new hotels and holiday facilities were built over the past few years to attract more guests from south and central Iraq who often vacationed in the Kurdish north’s cool temperatures in the summer months.

But the double shock of plummeting oil prices and the ISIS war hit the hotel industry hard as tourists increasingly chose to stay away.

“I think the tide has turned in our favor now,” said Malawi Jabar, Director of the Kurdistan Tourism Board. “Most hotels and motels have already been booked ahead of this summer’s holiday season, which are great signs,” he said.

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http://iraqdailyjournal.com/story-z14997893